


Every Great Love Story (starts with some really pretty hair)

by Sanctuaria



Series: Celebrating AoS Season 7 (with angst and hurt/comfort) [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Daisy's hair specifically, Deke is smitten, Dekesy, F/M, Fluff, Hair, LemonQuake, Protective Melinda May, Protective Phil Coulson, Team Bonding, Team as Family, Teasing, episode 7x03, everyone else is like WE KNOW, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:00:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24671983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctuaria/pseuds/Sanctuaria
Summary: In which Coulson is amused, Mack is protective, and May is Very Done™ with everyone in the room.Set during 7x03 because I, like Deke, am also casually in love with Daisy’s hair.
Relationships: Deke Shaw/Skye | Daisy Johnson, requited or unrequited you choose
Series: Celebrating AoS Season 7 (with angst and hurt/comfort) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764745
Comments: 38
Kudos: 95
Collections: fill the daisy/deke tag with actual content 2020





	Every Great Love Story (starts with some really pretty hair)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [pretty isn't everything (you punk ass)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24656389) by [anakinno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anakinno/pseuds/anakinno). 



> I would highly recommend reading anakinno's fic before this, first because it is AMAZING (Daisy&Simmons&Yo-Yo bonding! girl talk! hair! sass!), and second because this is based heavily off it. 
> 
> All credit for the original idea goes to her, including for the four lines I stole, but I just had to make fun of Deke from the guys' perspective as well :) Also thanks to Mals11 for some help with hair descriptors!

Quite frankly, this is a little bit weird. No one else is saying it—maybe getting dressed in the same room as all your male teammates is a normal S.H.I.E.L.D. bonding activity, or maybe some weird early 21st century thing—but Deke is still firmly on the side of _this is weird_.

And yeah, okay, there might be an actual, legitimate good reason for it all—bunks on the Zephyr are even tinier than what he had in the Lighthouse, with the bed squeezed in between two walls and barely an inch between the edge of it and the door, so to change clothes in there he’d basically have to be standing on the mattress the entire time and trying not to fall over or hit his head on the ceiling—but still.

Yeah, he totally wants to strip to his underwear in front of Coulson and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who also happens to be built like a tank. Totally.

But Deke is Deke, a little bit squirrelly and a lot stubborn, Lighthouse survivor, multi-millionaire CEO, and one-and-a-half-time world-saver, so he can muscle through. Even if May standing there in a corner just watching them all with her arms crossed wearing her usual S.H.I.E.L.D. tac suit is _kind of_ creeping him out.

Goddamn it, why does 1950s men’s clothing have to have so many straps?

“Deke,” Mack says, buttoning up a decidedly strap-free bright yellow shirt. It looks good on him, if Deke—the one who is apparently in charge of all clothing purchases—says so himself. “You talk with Daisy yet?”

He quickly averts his gaze, suddenly glad she’s still off with Simmons and Yo-Yo doing each other’s hair for their new era. “Uh, no, not yet.”

“Do it sooner rather than later,” Mack says, buttoning the last button and smoothing down the front of the shirt. Yes, Deke chose well; hopefully everyone on the team was beginning to appreciate his acute sense of style. “I need to know that the two of you working together isn’t going to be a problem.”

“Why would it be a problem?” Deke asks in a falsely cheery voice. Oh no. No. That is not the voice he meant to be using— “Nana works with Daisy just fine. Yo-Yo too! Even robo…LM… _special_ Coulson here works with Daisy just fine. So why wouldn’t I?” He knows before he even finishes that it’s not one of his better saves. It’s just not.

“Nice try, bro,” Coulson says.

Mack raises an eyebrow. “You know exactly why not.”

Deke gives him a hurt look. “ _Dude_. Not in front of…” He glances pointedly at Coulson and May.

“They already know,” Mack says incredulously. “ _Everyone_ already knows.”

Coulson gives him a little shoulder shrug. “Sorry.”

“It’s obvious. And disgusting,” May adds.

“Well that’s just…great,” Deke mutters, wrestling with the second shoulder strap. It’s supposed to attach to his pants for some reason. He abruptly switches tactics, still tugging at it. “That was over a _year_ ago,” he says. “You’d have to be, I don’t know, absolutely pathetic to still be mooning after someone who doesn’t like you back after a whole _year_.” The strap finally buttons properly, and he looks up to find all three of the staring at him.

Mack sighs. “Look, Deke, as long as it doesn’t affect the team, your crush isn’t any of our business…”

“It’s a little of my business,” Coulson says.

“And mine,” May asserts, narrowing her eyes at him. Deke edges away from her.

“Daisy and I are just friends!”

“Friends with…lemons,” Mack nods. “And questionable video game choices…”

“ _Hey, I gave you ten percent of my company not to talk about that_ ,” Deke hisses. “It’s just…Daisy’s so _Daisy_ , y’know? So it’s not my fault!”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t know,” Mack mutters.

“My appreciation for her is…wildly different,” Coulson agrees.

“And she’s smart and pretty and strong but she’s more than that,” Deke continues. “She connects with people, she cares about people so much and I just think that’s really…” The reality of who he’s currently waxing eloquent about Daisy to comes crashing in—what? it’s not like he has anyone else to tell given he spends twenty-four hours a day with these people seven days a week, so Renew him for slipping up—but his mouth keeps going anyway. “…beautiful.”

May stalks toward him, and for a second Deke thinks he really is about to get Renewaled, but her hand just slaps over his mouth, muffling anything else he was about to say—specifically, “Ow!”

He’s never really wanted to know what Melinda May’s hand tasted like, but that spaceship’s now left the docking port.

“Can we be done talking about this?” May asks, exasperation and disdain heavy in her voice.

“Seconded,” Coulson says, although he looks way too amused for Deke’s comfort. Deke nods vehemently from behind her hand, and she reluctantly removes it, stepping back.

“Like we said, none of our business,” Mack says. “But if you hurt her…”

“Hurt her?” Deke yelps. “Have you _seen_ Daisy? If anyone’s going to get hurt, it’s gonna be _me_!”

Mack and Coulson exchange a glance. “You know what, that’s true.”

“Yeah, that’s fair.”

“Have fun, buddy.”

May just smiles, in an absolutely-terrifying sort of way.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Deke scowls, crossing his arms. He knows he looks like a petulant child to them, but hey, that’s probably how they normally see him, so what’s the point? “Fine. I’m going to go find Simmons and Yo-Yo and Daisy I guess, and not because I want to run away from this conversation.”

“Wait,” May says, grabbing his wrist and stopping him in his tracks. He quickly shakes her off. Not that wrist. Never that wrist.

“They’re not finished yet?” Deke says, trying to cover up his momentary lapse. “It’s only hair. How long could it possibly take?”

“Just wait,” Coulson says, although the look he gives him is almost pitying. “Give them another few minutes. It’s a lot to deal with.”

“It’s hair!” Deke says, although now that he thinks about it, Daisy’s hair does always look nice, and maybe that takes some time to do. Like sometimes it’s darker and sometimes it’s lighter, and sometimes it’s wavy and just perfectly frames her face and then other times there are actual curls and—

Deke blinks, and really hopes he didn’t just say that all out loud. Despite her telling him not to, May saunters off to go find the girls—maybe she’s allowed to because she _is_ a girl, but they’re just doing hair, so it’s not like that should matter.

“It looks like you guys are done,” he hears her say from somewhere down the hallway. “…If you don’t come and rescue me from your boyfriend, Daisy, I might be forced to commit a homicide.”

He feels his ears go red and the rushing sensation that is his heart palpitating in his chest. “I’m not her boyfriend!” Deke splutters at Mack and Coulson, eyes wide.

“Trust me,” Mack says. “We know.”

“—she would probably kill me just for—”

Coulson claps him on the back. “Yeah,” he agrees. “She definitely would.”

Daisy stalks in just then, her anger-fueled gait so similar to May’s murder strut that he instinctively takes a step backwards. Her hair _does_ look good though, soft and silky with the strands of gold positioned such that they catch and reflect the light, gentle curls falling just below her shoulders in perfect ringlets… Deke almost wants to reach out and touch one, but he values his life—and women’s right to bodily autonomy—so he restrains himself.

“Your hair looks, uh, nice,” he says instead, dragging his eyes away from it to meet hers. The honey-brown color really does bring out the warm, rich darkness of her eyes. “The shape is…pretty.”

“Thanks, Deke,” Daisy sighs. Mack mouths “the shape is pretty” at him behind Daisy’s back, and Deke shoots him a furious glare. “So, we’re headed to the diner to pick up this ‘Gerald Sharpe’?”

Mack nods as Simmons and Yo-Yo shuffle into the room as well, followed by May. Their hair is coiffed—coiffed, that’s a hair term, right?—now too, and he wonders which one Daisy helped with. “You, me, Yo-Yo, and Coulson. Whenever you’re ready,” he tells them.

“Aw, I wanted to go to the diner, not be stuck here creating our makeshift interrogation chamber,” Deke pouts.

“I’ll bring you something back,” Daisy says easily, grabbing her period-appropriate handbag and signaling to the others that she’s ready to move out.

“Ooh, fries—”

“Fries, a burger, no pickles, extra tomato, and a Coca-Cola,” Daisy lists off. Deke stops, surprised, and maybe a little delighted.

Still, he tries to play it off cool. “Yeah, if Zima hasn’t been invented yet, sure.”

“Oh, yes, nothing special at all,” Simmons smirks, although Deke has no idea what she’s talking about. Daisy obviously does though, shooting her a very dirty look as she, Yo-Yo, Mack, and Coulson begin heading for the ramp.

“Nothing for you then,” Daisy calls back at her.

Yo-Yo turns and winks. “I’ll grab you something, Jemma.”

“Thanks, Yo-Yo!” his Nana says, waving before returning to the lab to get started on the interrogation chamber.

Deke watches as they descend into the bright orange sunlight of the desert, Daisy’s curls blowing slightly in the hot, dry wind. “You’re still not good enough for her,” May says from behind him, still all stoic and murdery.

He turns and huffs a nervous laugh. “Is anyone?”

The corners of May’s mouth lift slightly into the first real, non-sinister expression of emotion he’s seen from her since she was taken out of the healing pod. “ _No_.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!! Any and all feedback is always appreciated :)
> 
> Also, here's some fanart to go with because I have too much time on my hands:


End file.
